Poster Frames for Videos in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Learn how to add a Poster Frame for your video clips in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac.

Author:Geetesh Bajaj

Product/Version: Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

OS: Microsoft Windows XP and higher

Date Created: April 16, 2013Last Updated: April 16, 2013

When you insert a video in your presentation, you might see
that the placed video clip displays a blank or black rectangle on the slide, as shown in Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Movie before adding a Poster Frame

If your video clip does not show a black rectangle, then of course there is no issue concerned. However, if it does show this black rectangle, your
viewers may not find this appealing at all. With PowerPoint 2011's Poster Frame feature, you can easily overcome this limitation, and
change the black rectangle to an image by selecting a frame from the video itself, or even a picture from a different source. Also, the
Poster Frame feature presents a good option for displaying a company logo or a picture of the speaker in the video. The Poster Frame
is a frame that appears first even before the video starts playing in the
Slide Show view.

If you see a black rectangle when you inserted a video, or if you want to change the frame visible – then you can add a Poster frame for it in two
ways:

Include a frame from the video itself.

Insert an image such as an external JPG or PNG.

In this tutorial, you will learn about both these ways to add a poster frame for your video clips:

Add Poster Frame from the Video itself

Open your presentation, and navigate to the slide that contains a video clip. Select the video clip to bring up the Format Movie
tab of the Ribbon as shown highlighted in red
within Figure 1, above -- activate the tab by clicking on it.

Make sure you are in Normal editing view, play the video clip
through the Player Control bar (highlighted in blue within Figure 1, above). Your video
clip now starts playing, as shown in Figure 2. When you reach the frame that you want to display as a poster frame, pause the video
by clicking the Pause button, highlighted in red within Figure 2.Figure 2: Pause button within the Player Control bar

This pauses the video, and the Pause button will change to the Play button, as shown in
Figure 3 (highlighted in red). Make sure that you see the frame at which you paused the video. If
this is not the frame you want to use for your Poster frame, you can continue clicking the Play and Pause buttons
until you are paused at the frame you want to use for your Poster frame.Figure 3: Paused video shows a frame

Now, within the Format Movie tab, click the Poster Frame button (highlighted in red
within Figure 4) to access the Poster Frame drop-down gallery that you can see in Figure 4. Within
this drop-down gallery select the Current Frame option -- refer to Figure 4 again.

This sets the preview image for the active video clip to the current frame. The Player Control bar now displays a message that the
poster frame is set, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5.Figure 5: Current frame set as Poster Frame

This opens the Choose a Picture dialog box. Navigate to the folder where your pictures are located, you will see the icons or
thumbnails of the pictures as shown in Figure 7. Click on the picture you need, and click the Insert button,
highlighted in red within Figure 7.

Figure 7: Choose a Picture dialog box

This will set the preview image for the video clip to the selected image. The player controls box now displays a message that the poster frame is
set, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 8.Figure 8: Image set as Poster Frame

Make sure you save your presentation.

Note: If you want to remove the Poster Frame at any point of time, first make sure that your movie clip is selected. Then, simply
navigate to the Poster Frame drop-down gallery, and choose the Reset option, as shown in Figure 9.

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